Should Doctors Post Selfies with Patients During Treatment Taking medial selfies: a negative implication of the technological advancement or the reckless behavior of individuals? In a talk show seen above, guests have mocked a selfie taken while a women labor herself to give a birth. Also, they have discussed whether such and other medial selfies are relevant or not. On such circumstances, some have also opined their view on the rampant medical selfies. The rise of the "medical selfie" could change the doctor-patient relationship forever, a Brisbane scientific photographer says. Kara Burns is completing her PhD on "patient-generated health data", which allows people to track and collect data on their own health by using wearable technology, smartphone apps and photography. "To begin with I was interested in what happened when doctors took photos with patients," the QUT student said. "But as people became more familiar with smartphones, patients were bringing images into the consultation as well ... it puts them in a more empowered position." A trained medical photographer who spent more than seven years in a tertiary hospital, Ms Burns is looking for patients with a condition that could benefit from medical selfies to take part in a study. "It's essentially a photograph of a visible pathology or visible abnormality, something like a wound, a rash, skin conditions, even a mole somebody's worried about," she said. "I'm interested in what happens when a patient collects this data and takes it to their health professional and say they've been tracking it and ask if it's significant to their condition," she said. She was also looking for carers who might find medical selfies useful with their patients, as well as doctors who treat those types of conditions, to take part in the first stage of her research. "The first study will be about the underlying value of the data and what it means to a patient to create it," she said. "The second study of the PhD will be actually tracking symptoms ... that will be early next year." Ms Burns said the case last year of Canadian woman Stacey Yepes, who filmed herself having stroke-like symptoms, had highlighted how useful medical selfies could be. "She returned to the ED, they sent her for specialised testing and (she) was diagnosed with having mini-strokes," she said. Source
